Pear Valley is winery-only 100% direct to customer shipping. Shipping wasn’t bad, $25 for 6 bottles. Beth served us, wine tasting manager and it was quiet except one other customer at an early morning appointment.
Pear Valley is delivering very unique varietals, as well as the traditional offerings and there are over 40 wines that they present. A lot of award winners. They have open only about 8 bottles of the potential choices, but the facility is inviting to buy a bottle and sit out amidst the vines inside or outside throughout a wide spread beautiful tasting and event center area. My favorite was a handing swing facing the vineyards. Could see hours with a glass of wine sitting there. You could spend a lot of time at this winery.
THE WINES:
1. Chenin Blanc 2021 – started with the gold label winner. Very gorgeous rich and decadent. Full heavyweight mouthfeel. Coats and lingers. Beautiful inhibited malolactic acid. Gorgeous lemon curd with a beautiful creamy finish. 14% alcohol. Very beautiful vibrant wine that I want to have more. FELL IN LOVE and this is not a varietal that attracted me before. My friend Tom and I ordered 4 bottles shipped.
2. Viognier, it had been a challenging year due to lack of rain. while it was 100% French oak barreled, it had very bright aromas but it lacked the vibrancy of that Chenin Blanc to us. Nicely soft and easy sipping, but not a standout.
3. Charbono -, this is a grape I hadn’t heard of before. It won double gold in the San Francisco wine tasting. That’s cool here in California. Runs $32. Unique so much so that for quite a while I couldn’t place any flavors I recognized. I decided cranberry, and the winemaker notes “Marionberry”, butI don’t know what that tastes like. It has flavors of spice that are savory but again I couldn’t pin it down. The wine maker says anise…. unique flavors. Retail $32.
4. ”Inspiration” 2019 is one of the wines we wanted to try. It’s their GSM with 51% Syrah predominant. Not the tannin bomb or astringency we’ve seen in some of the others. Great balance easy drinking now. The fruit is an interesting raspberry and a little bit of bright cranberry, a little light spice.
5. Cabernet Franc, wow they are delivering a powerhouse here. Berries pop with the tannin together. 15% alcohol and really amazing powerful fruit. 38% in French oak, tones down some acidity. Probably could lay down a lmore or serve with a meaty item, or barbecue for the spice to pop.
6. The Tempranillo was nice. Easy drinking jammy, lovely. A sipper. Absolutely easy to see going out in the patio and having a bottle without anyone disliking it, a crowd-pleaser.
7. Aglianco is a wow pop pop pop a fruit and tannin and acid together. It is a big wine and the fruit is plummy, dark black ripe cherry, with very big even some slight orange peel. A food wine definitely with powerhouse flavors going on. 15.2 percent alcohol so a little hot but it is integrated. Seemed like an Italian Super Tuscan. Tom liked this to add it to our order.
9. Distraction. 2019 Bordeaux blend. It is Cabernet -Cabernet Franc Merlot- Malbec -Petit Verdot wow. Very nice
10. Pear Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Getting a little bit hot. The flavors aren’t as potent as that really big alianco now that we’ve had that first. Both are dark wines with a lot of jammy color. Little more slightly red mixed black fruits together.
If you look for interesting, variety alternatives this one would have a lot of interest, none of them are undrinkable today that we tried.
We loved the property and wish we could have had the time to just hang out there.
Very nice property with gardens and tables outside too.
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